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She said: "The police responses show that the police are clearly struggling to recognise upskirting distinctly, even though the disclosures reveal that it is commonly connected to existing sexual offences including voyeurism and sexual assault."

Devon and Cornwall Police is yet to comment.

Darryl Clarke

In 2016 a former policeman was caught with 22,000 indecent images of children – most of them secretly taken up the skirts of girls.

RAF veteran Darryl Clarke, aged 44, used his mobile phone to take photographs of children in Drake Circus, Plymouth, and other unknown public places for 12 years.

Clarke sexually assaulted one three-year-old girl in a house in order to get one vile film, Plymouth Crown Court heard.

Police found so many indecent images of children on his computer and phones that they gave up formally classifying them.

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VICTIM'S MOTHER: 'I CRY ENDLESS TEARS'

THE DISGUSTED mother of the child who was sexually assaulted by Clarke said: “I have cried endless tears for my daughter”.

She added in a statement read to the court that part of the three-year-old’s life had been “stolen”.

The woman, who cannot be named, said she had found it hard to think of anything else since police told her what had happened.

The mother was forced to identify her daughter in the picture – she was shown first the face but chose to see the whole image. That gave detectives more important information.

The mother said: “Around the time of this incident, she started to wet the bed. We shall never know whether this was a result of what happened. All I ever wanted to do was to keep my child safe, happy and loved. I feel that part of my life has been stolen.

“I still cannot understand nor comprehend why he has done this and why he has acted in this way. No mother should have to tell her daughter that she has been abused.